The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Because of that client, I was introduced to some of his friends who had started a gaming company – who were also based in Derby.

They were very small, but because I was around their age and also in love with gaming, I would occasionally pop in and say hello.

One day – months after I’d last been in Derby – I passed this gaming companies offices and saw something different.

Cars.

Lots of them.

Fancy as fuck.

Now I’d obviously seen fancy cars before – even in Derby – but not at their offices, so I decided to pop in, say hello and see what was going on.

It was there I learned that a game they had spent years working on had become a success.

Not just in sales, but in its impact on broader culture.

A game I’d heard and read a lot about … but didn’t know it was from them.

And – to be honest – a game I probably would not naturally associate with them.

It was Tomb Raider.

A game that changed everyone in that companies life – for better and, in some cases, worse.

A game that featured a character – Lara Croft – that became the subject of sequels, TV shows, magazine covers, movies, books songs and young boys fantasies.

Tomb Raider – especially early Tomb Raider – was definitely of a time, but at the time, it was a revelation … which is why this image of the script scale of GTA really highlighted the change of games and the change of technology that enables them.

Look at it!

And that’s just the change between GTA 3 and 4.

So imagine what the impending GTA 6 script is going to look like.

More than that, imagine what the revenue is going to look like.

It’s already the biggest selling game and franchise in gaming console history – with over US$8 billion sold.

What’s also impressive is that they’ve been able to keep all of their ‘unsavoury’ elements and maintain their popularity. Given we live in such political times, that’s quite the achievement … and something the guys who own the Tomb Raider franchise must hate given they got left behind, despite trying to ‘modernise’ Lara.

That said, I was doing some work with Rockstar – GTA’s creators – a while back and mentioned how the context of the times meant they could really fuck with the authorities in a fascinating way and was interrupted by their lawyer who said:

“We are not going to be doing that”.

Which is almost as much of a high point as being fired by the Chili’s.